A young widow struggles to come to terms with her solitary life in the rambling Victorian house she shared, until recently, with her husband and children. In her living room are several hatboxes filled with letters and other ghostly ephemera, recently brought by her sister from the attic of their grandparents' 18th century house. As she begins to read the letters, she discovers that what to a child seemed a serene and blissful marriage was in fact founded on a tragic event.